


Tiger Tiger

by IrenkaFeralKitty



Series: Dream Dust [17]
Category: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Loneliness, Loneliness in a Crowd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26491984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrenkaFeralKitty/pseuds/IrenkaFeralKitty
Summary: Ryo's armor is next and he doesn't want anyone to get hurt because of him.
Series: Dream Dust [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1809439
Kudos: 1





	Tiger Tiger

**Author's Note:**

> Story is set in the Dream Dust RPG setting.

Ryo buried his face in Byakuen’s fur as the big cat raced across the rooftop. He tightened his legs as he felt the tiger’s muscles tense and coil up…

Then they were soaring and the rush of air through Ryo’s hair was like nothing else he’d ever felt. 

They landed smoothly and Bya kept going. Even with different size roofs sitting at various angles and heights, the rhythm of running, leaping, and landing was the same as it had been back home. 

It was better here, though, because one who saw them wouldn't call the police. 

Ryo wondered if anyone had noticed that he’d left. He wondered if anyone cared. 

No matter what he did, he just kept fading into the background. His friends were growing closer and closer with the Masho. That was good. It was very good because the Masho were hurting in a lot of ways they didn’t deserve. He didn’t like friends hurting and he liked to think that… maybe… they might consider him a friend, even if he hadn’t found the deeper connection Shuu and Seiji had discovered with Rajura and Anubisu.

He definitely hadn’t found something like what Nasutei was building with Shuten. Remembering that, how she looked at him, embraced him, and held his hand… that made him feel pathetically small. He hadn’t lost anything. It had never been his in the first place.

He was glad Nasutei had Shuten, though, because Ryo wasn’t there to help comfort her right now. He couldn’t be there, he couldn’t stand to be in the apartment right, not with so much misery and pain around him.

Nasutei should have had to fight and see the horror that was Darkeater. Shuu had emerged from the fight bloodied and battered. They were all so cold and tired and scared…

And then there was Seiji and Touma. 

He’d never felt so afraid as he had when Seiji had started screaming at them in the tunnels, snarling that Shuu was a coward and that they were all useless- 

When Anubisu had growled and slammed him into the wall, coldly telling him to remember his place-

Seiji had attacked him and then black gore had started to leak out of his eyes and drip out of his nose and mouth. It looked like he was rotting away from the inside, and Ryo had to fight to keep from screaming when Rajura put him to sleep and he went completely limp.

He’d looked dead on Shuu’s back, like a rotted corpse.

Mind control, it had turned out, was the reason for Seiji’s bizarre behavior and his death-like appearance. Touma was also afflicted and had ended up even more horribly trussed up than Seiji, who at least seemed calmer and less prone to violence as long as Anubisu was touching him.

And now they were all hurting, Seiji and Touma the worst. They were hurting and there was nothing Ryo could do to help them.

There never seemed to be anything Ryo could do to keep someone from being hurt… or even killed.

And now… Now it was his armor they were going to try to retrieve next. Ryo’s armor, buried inside a thickly armored American battle tank. A tank that had nearly killed Ibaraki. A tank that had the still-living bodies of its crew and platoon melted into its body, screaming in pain and warning every time the tank prowled through the streets searching for… something.

Ryo couldn’t let anyone be hurt on his behalf.

At least with the cold, they’d been able to prepare. They’d gone down with jackets, hats, and gloves. They could arm themselves against the cold.

There was nothing they could do about fire, not like that.

Ryo whimpered and clutched tighter to Byakuen and remembered the first time he’d battled on the slopes of Mt. Fuji. Shuten had thrown Nasutei and Jun inside and Ryo had barely been able to remember to remove his armor so he didn’t roast them alive just by being close.

He still remembered their imagined screams as he caught them and their bodies went up like matches, burning away to nothingness in just a few moments.

He couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let them face Hobart. It was his armor and his responsibility to see it safely retrieved.

Maybe… Maybe with enough time and some delicate prodding, he could come up with a plan to go after Hobart alone. 

He wasn’t going to let anyone be hurt.


End file.
